Dead and Alive
by Rill with a view
Summary: An evening in a fashionable bar on the planet Belanthi leads the Doctor to an encounter with an old friend - and there's a fascinating story to be told.
1. Part 1 The Bar

Author's Note: This story features the 3rd Doctor and Jo. Later chapters will be told from the points of view of the Doctor and one of my own characters, Ryn, who is introduced here. I do not own the Doctor, Jo, UNIT or any other parts of the Doctor Who legend. Please read and review.

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Dead and Alive (Part One)

Jo leaned back in her chair as she sipped contentedly from her glass of arash juice. Eating and drinking on alien planets was always a curious experience and Jo was generally content to let the Doctor be her guide through the multitude of unfamiliar menu listings. As well as having an instinct for what appealed to Jo's taste buds, the Doctor knew which items were compatible with her human physiology. He'd come good again; the arash juice was sweet and aromatic and tasted rather like mango with perhaps a touch of something similar to ginger.

On the opposite side of the table, the Doctor was people watching. His own glass of fronch (a rather heady cider-like concoction) was almost untouched. He had chosen this bar for the atmosphere rather than the refreshments - it was said to be the most fashionable drinking establishment on the whole of Belanth and was frequented by many celebrities, politicians and other leading opinion formers of the planet. Every time that the door opened the Doctor would swing around to see if anyone famous had just entered. Jo knew that the Doctor was not the kind of person to be unduly swayed or impressed by celebrity in its own right but that many of the leading lights of Belanth were likely to be personal friends of his. Wherever the TARDIS landed it seemed that the Doctor knew someone of influence. Well that was only natural considering how many hundreds of years he had spent exploring the known universe. Since the Time Lords had lifted his exile, the Doctor's thirst for adventure had only grown. He was enjoying life like never before and it was a joy to share in his adventures.

"Have you spotted anyone you know yet Doctor?"

Jo cast her eyes around the bar; it was still early evening and she guessed that things might liven up later but for now there were probably no more than a couple of dozen Belanthis enjoying social drinks and finger food. The Belanthis were sweet-looking people thought Jo. They rather put her in mind of the satyrs of Greek mythology (only fully clothed of course). They were jolly by nature and all of the Belanthis whom she'd met so far had proven themselves to be highly talkative and very welcoming of strangers. Jo and the Doctor were the only off-worlders in the room but were not attracting a disproportionate amount of attention as the planet was used to receiving visitors.

The Doctor shook his head in reply. "No, not yet Jo. There are one or two people here who I know by reputation though."

Then Ryn walked into the bar.

The elderly Belanthi's eyes fixed upon the Doctor straight away and he limped eagerly over to the Time Lord's side.

"Doctor! Oh, I can scarcely believe it's you. And you've hardly changed a day. So what brings you here? Has your exile been revoked? Oh I do hope so. I'm so happy for you!"

The words cascaded out of Ryn's mouth like a avalanche with each question or statement following the previous in such rapid succession that the Doctor had no chance to reply to any of them. The Doctor was on his feet too by this time and extending his hand in greeting.

"Ryn old chap! How delightful to see you. Oh, I'm forgetting my manners, this is Miss. Josephine Grant. Please, won't you join us for a drink?"

Ryn smiled gratefully and eased his weary old bones into the empty chair between the two travellers. As soon as he'd made himself comfortable he offered Jo his hand. Shaking hands wasn't a natural part of the culture of Belanth but Ryn was very well versed in the social niceties of alien cultures, and Earth culture especially so.

"Miss Grant, I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance. Allow me to present myself. I'm Ryn Triyh, the Doctor and I are old friends. Though judging by how little the Doctor has changed I assume that far more time has passed for me than for him."

Jo couldn't help but smile at the formality of Ryn's greeting.

"It's Jo, please just call me Jo."

While Ryn and Jo were exchanging pleasantries the Doctor had been over to the bar to buy a large fronch for Ryn. Now returned, he put the glass down on the table and settled back into the conversation.

"So what are you doing these days Ryn? You must be enjoying your retirement?"

Ryn gave the throaty little chuckle so typical of his species.

"You know me better than that Doctor, I don't know the meaning of the word retirement. No, I'm lecturing at the local university now as a visiting Professor of Business Ethics."

It was the Doctor's turn to chuckle.

"Business Ethics? Oh my dear fellow, you really have come a long way haven't you?"

Jo was intrigued by the exchange. There was clearly a very interesting history between the two men. There was much mutual respect evident but Jo was getting the distinct feeling that this had not always been the case.

"So how did you two boys first meet?"

"Ah," said Ryn, "Now that's quite a tale. The truth of the matter is that I got myself into a bit of mess some decades ago with a business that I used to own, and the Doctor came to my rescue."

"Yes Jo, Ryn was quite the old rogue in his younger days. It was quite early on in my exile that our paths crossed. Have you ever read the UNIT files on the Athwell incident?"

Jo shook her head. The Doctor continued.

"Ah, well the Brigadier is bound to have filed that one away under Top Secret. Quite how he managed to keep the case so hushed up I'll never know."

Jo raised her eyebrows at him questioningly. Sometimes the Doctor could be deliberately obtuse. The Doctor acknowledged her look and held up his hands in surrender.

"OK, we'll tell you about it," the Doctor exchanged glances with Ryn who indicated his assent with a brief nod. "After you Ryn?"

Ryn took surprisingly large swig of his fronch and shook his head.

"No, you start Doctor. I'll jump in when this stuff has loosened up my memories a bit."

The Doctor smiled indulgently at the Belanthi. At that rate of drinking it could hardly be very long before Ryn wouldn't be able to resist joining in. Alcohol had a curious effect on the Belanthi body - it stimulated the mind without intoxicating. The Doctor took a brief sip from his own glass, cleared his throat, and began to tell his story…

(TO BE CONTINUED)


	2. Part 2 The Doctor

Author's Note: Part Two is told from the point of view of the Doctor. Please read and review.

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Dead and Alive (Part Two)

It all started one spring morning when the Brigadier breezed into my laboratory clutching an armful of documents. I'm sure that he only ever does this so that he can keep a check on me. It's as though he thinks I'm going to jump into my TARDIS and travel to some distant planet the moment that his back is turned. Well I suppose that is what I do do these days but back then it wasn't an option. I was trapped on Earth, as you know, and Alistair's constant interruptions to my efforts to leave were getting on my nerves.

"Good morning Doctor. I've got the latest field reports. Thought you might like to take a look when you've got a spare moment."

Of course, by "spare moment" the Brigadier meant "right now while I stand here watching over you". He was in very cheerful form so I knew that it wasn't going to be easy to get rid of him. There was nothing for it but to feign interest. I put the dematerialisation circuit down on my work bench and gave him my full attention.

"Hello Alistair, is there anything interesting?"

At first it seemed that there wasn't. He had about a dozen different files on him and most of them were routine matters. There were four or five cases of crop circles - and we all know what causes those don't we? Also there were the usual clutch of unconvincing UFO sightings which all seemed to have taken place in very close proximity to RAF bases shortly after pub closing time. Why this type of material is ever passed to UNIT I really have no idea. I'm sure it could all be investigated by the local constabulary. Finally the Brigadier reached the only remotely interesting case of the batch.

"Then there's this young chap up in Lincoln who claims that he's being haunted by demons. All nonsense of course. The poor man was widowed not two weeks ago. That's bound to have knocked him for six, he's most probably delusional."

Sometimes the Brigadier's lack of perception just astonishes me. I fixed him with a reproving stare and held out my hand for the file.

"Delusional, yes maybe? Or perhaps he's just more vulnerable don't you think? Show me that file please Alistair."

The Brigadier just shrugged and handed it over to me. I suspect that he was probably rather glad to have my attention though. I speed read it and by the time that I'd reached the end I was convinced that there was something worth investigating in Lincoln.

The young chap in question was a man called Marc Athwell, in his mid-twenties and employed in local government in an office job. His wife of less than a year, Sophie, had recently been killed in a freak traffic accident. A bus driver had died at the wheel and the vehicle had ploughed up onto the pavement into a crowd of unwitting shoppers in the city centre. There had been seven fatalities, apart from the driver, and Sophie was one of them. It was very tragic. Shortly after Sophie's funeral the demons started to appear in Marc's house. In his statement for the UNIT file, Marc claimed that they were taunting him about the death of his wife.

I tossed the file back to the Brigadier, who caught it awkwardly, and I locked the TARDIS door and strode out of the laboratory to make my way down to the UNIT garage where Bessie was housed.

"Just where do you think you're going now Doctor?" The Brigadier's voice bellowed down the corridor after me.

"To Lincoln of course," I called back over my shoulder, "I'll collect Liz along the way."

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(TO BE CONTINUED)


	3. Part 3 The Bar

Author's Note: Part Three of Dead and Alive. We return to the bar on the planet Belanth as Jo takes stock of the Doctor's story.

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Dead and Alive (Part Three)

Jo thumped her empty glass back down on the table and turned accusingly to Ryn.

"It was you wasn't it? You were the demon tormenting that poor young man, and in his own home!"

Ryn winced visibly at the word 'demon' and a genuine look of hurt crossed his eyes. He shuffled uncomfortably in his chair and looked to the Doctor for support. It came at once.

"Yes, well, demon was just Marc's description of what he believed he was seeing, Jo. I never believed that Ryn here was anything of the kind. There was nothing at all supernatural about those events."

Jo shrugged. She couldn't think of any remotely good reason why Ryn might have been lurking in the home of a freshly widowed young man but, at least for the moment, she decided to hold her tongue. No doubt the truth would emerge as the story progressed.

Ryn found his voice at last. Either the generous measure of fronch was starting to take effect or he just felt the need to justify himself after Jo's unexpectedly hostile reaction.

"I certainly can't stake a claim to the moral high ground here but you should at least try to understand that I was only doing what I thought to be right. Quite frankly, it was far more than Marc deserved. He wasn't exactly the model husband, not according to Sophie. She was only too glad to accept my offer."

Jo was astonished.

"So you were on the scene before Sophie Athwell's death? You appeared to her too?"

Ryn nodded his head and then shook it, paused, then nodded it again.

"Yes, I met Sophie a couple of weeks before I met Marc. A charming young lady - nothing like her husband. Sophie didn't die though and that's rather the point of this whole story."

Jo turned back to the Doctor.

"But you said that Sophie had been killed in that terrible bus accident."

The Doctor smiled innocently at her as he rose to his feet. He was enjoying spinning his tale but it was high time that he stepped back and let Ryn take a turn - otherwise Jo might become consumed with moral indignation and physically lash out at the Belanthi.

"I said nothing of the sort Jo. I told you about a UNIT report containing Marc's account of how his wife had died. The accident was real enough and seven pedestrians _did_ die but Sophie wasn't one of them. I'm hungry, I'm going to go and order us some food. Ryn can continue the story while I'm away."

Jo glared at his back as he walked to the bar. He _had _said that Sophie was killed, she was sure of it. The Doctor and Ryn were playing some kind of game with her. Although she didn't think that either of them were lying they were both clearly not above embellishing the story.

"Do you have any experience of matter transmission Miss Grant… er, Jo?"

Ryn's question took Jo's thoughts back to the Master's recklessly irresponsible TOMTIT experiments at the Newton Institute in Wootton and all of the chaos which had been unleashed by them. An involuntary shudder ran down her spine.

"Very little, I understand the basic principles," she replied.

That wasn't exactly true, but the prospect of listening to a dry lecture on the subject held little appeal. However, Jo was still eager to hear Ryn's story.

"Well matter transmission was the keystone to my business success, and to its subsequent failure. I offered my clients a truly unique experience. But let me go right back to the start and tell you all about my big idea."

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(TO BE CONTINUED)


	4. Part 4 Ryn

Author's Note: Ryn takes up the story for this section. It's time for some background details.Please read and review.

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Dead and Alive (Part Four)

Space exploration used to be the greatest dream of our people. The concept of visiting alien worlds captured the public imagination, many billions of tarfs were spent on realising that dream. We had an enormous government funded space programme, as you might expect, and thousands of our people volunteered themselves to train as potential space travellers. The lucky few hundred who met the entrance criteria all became massive celebrities, the public could not get enough of them. Within just thirty years of the first crewed space flight we had a fleet of more than two hundred spacecraft and we were swarming out across the universe like a benign, but curious, plague. Our interests laid not in the conquest or exploitation of any planet that we visited, we just wanted to see as much as we could.

Every child on Belanth wanted to grow up to be a space traveller, I was one of the lucky ones who achieved his dream. By the time that I was active in Space Fleet, our scientists had mastered a new technology which quickly came to totally revolutionise life on Belanth. I'm talking about matter transmission. Of course, in the early days we were fairly cautious and just used it to transport goods, food and stuff. The potential application to the space programme became obvious as soon as we started to transmit people across Belanth. The government decided that it would be a fantastic idea to install matter transmission booths on all of the planets which we regularly visited - if that could be achieved then space exploration would be open to every citizen of Belanth rather than remaining the preserve of just the lucky few deemed fit enough to stand up to the physical demands of long journeys. Now anyone would be able to transmit themselves from Belanth directly to the planet of their choice - so long as they had government permission to make such a journey..

One of my earliest space trips had been to the planet Earth, I'd fallen in love with the place, so when the government announced its decision to install a booth there I volunteered to be part of that mission. We chose a quiet little city called Lincoln and we soon had the booth up and running. It was located in a public park, the Arboretum, but was hidden from prying eyes by our advanced cloaking technology - which I assume you don't require a lecture on, Miss Grant? Oh, good. While we had been installing the booth, our sister mission had been equally busy launching the relay satellite into Earth's space - again this was also cloaked. With both devices up and running the only thing left to do was to put them to the test. Some of us transmitted ourselves back to Belanth, our mission accomplished. We were treated as heroes.

Over the next few years the government decided to recoup some of the money spent on the space programme by selling off the operating rights and ownership of the various transmat booths to interested private concerns. I'd become very rich through my numerous media appearances and the sale of my autobiography, as one of the interplanetary transmat pioneers I was a household name. I had more than sufficient funds to purchase the Earth transmat booth, and its relay satellite, so I did so. It became my new personal aim in life to bring cheap holidays on Earth to the Belanthi people and I set up a company called Earth Experience. I offered my customers the unique experience of living the life of a human. By that I don't just mean that I sent them down to Earth to live like a human for a couple of weeks, oh no, each of my customers got to take on the actual identity of a real pre-selected human being and live that person's life for a time. I personally picked the humans who were to be temporarily replaced and it was all going fine until the day that I selected Sophie Athwell…

(TO BE CONTINUED)


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